Roma in United Nations refugee camps, Kosovska Mitrovica
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About 500-700 Roma people currently (as of 2008) live in three UN-created refugee camps in Kosovska Mitrovica, Kosovo[a]. The camps are based around disused heavy metals mines which have fallen out of use since the end of the Kosovo War of 1999. There have been complaints that the residents are suffering severe lead poisoning.
| “ | Ten years after the destruction of the Roma quarter in Kosovska Mitrovica, its former inhabitants remained displaced in camps in north Mitrovica (Cesmin Lug, Osterode and Leposavic), exposed to ongoing and harmful lead contamination. | ” |
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—Balkans: Human Rights Lagging[1], Human Rights Watch, January 20, 2010 |
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[edit] Current Situation
A number of people have been resettled to the local mahala and to the former French UN barracks.[1]
The current situation is that approximately 150 Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian families currently live in the camps of North Kosovska Mitrovica. There are plans to resettle the majority of these families to the Roma Mahala neighbourhood in South Mitrovicë/a, where 100 families already reside. The community is receiving assistance from a number of local and international NGOs.[2]
The former French barracks, Osterode camp, is managed by a local NGO Kosovo Agency for Advocacy and Development (KAAD) - funded by the Kosovo Ministry for Communities and Returns,[3] while the nearby Cesmin Lug camp, where living conditions are noticeably poorer, is officially under the jurisdiction of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) in North Mitrovicë/a.
Unemployment is extremely high in the community of relocation, Roma Mahala and Kosovska Mitrovica more generally. There was a commitment to close the camps by the end of 2010 but this goal may be overambitious, especially as Western European countries continue to forcibly return RAE people to Kosovo despite the obvious lack of absorptive capacity in the receiving society.
[edit] Background
A BBC article [4] of June 2005 said that the European Roma Rights Centre was preparing legal action against the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), the interim Kosovan Government over its failure to relocate the remaining residents.
[edit] Response
The leading NGO taking up the case is the Kosovo Roma Refugee Foundation, led by Paul Polansky. Mr. Polansky's controversial article [5] in the International Herald Tribune in the Spring of 2005, sparked considerable international interest.
Since that time, the International Committee of the Red Cross, Amnesty International, the Society for Threatened Peoples, Refugees International and many other humanitarian organizations have demanded that the UN immediately evacuate these three camps.
Legal actions have been taken by the European Roma Rights Centre. On 20 February 2006, ERRC filed a lawsuit [6] against UNMIK with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. On 24 March 2006, a meeting was held [7] by the United Nations Human Rights Committee to review the ERRC's report on the human rights situation in Mitrovica, Kosovo.
As of late 2006, reports circulated of new sites being found for the Roma refugees, but suitability (location in Albanian quarter ) and progress on moving, is unknown.[8] [9] [10]
[edit] Documentaries
A documentary about the issue, Gypsy Blood: The Roma, Ashali and Egyptian IDPs of Kosovska Mitrovica, Kosovo was completed in July 2005 by American film-maker Daniel Lanctot.
This documentary was screened at numerous international venues. It won the award for Best Informative Film at the Golden Wheel Film Festival (2005) in Skopje, Macedonia. Also in 2005, it screened at a European Parliament hearing on the "Situation of Roma women in the European Union" and at the International "One World Festival of Documentary Films on Human Rights" in Pristina.
Dateline's UN's Toxic Shame by Amos Roberts, a scathing review of the UN's inaction on this scandal, aired in Australia on 26 April 2009.[11]
[edit] See also
[edit] Noes and references
| a. | ^ Kosovo is the subject of a territorial dispute between the Republic of Serbia and the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo. The latter declared independence on 17 February 2008, while Serbia claims it as part of its own sovereign territory. Its independence is recognised by 88 UN member states. |
- ^ "UNHCR and the situation of internally displaced Roma in Cesmin Lug and Osterode camps in Kosovo" (in English). UNHCR. http://www.unhcr.no/en/News/press10/press_100301_Kosovo.html. Retrieved 28 May 2010.
- ^ "History of Roma Mahala" (in English). Danish Refugee Council. http://www.drc-kosovo.org/history.html. Retrieved 28 May 2010.[dead link]
- ^ "Ministry for Communities and Return Program" (in English). KAAD. 2010. http://www.kaad-ks.org/mcrp.html. Retrieved 28 May 2010.[dead link]
- ^ "Toxic camp angers Kosovo Roma". BBC News. 2005-06-13. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4080048.stm. Retrieved 2010-05-22.
- ^ Kosovo: Poisoned camps for the Gypsies - International Herald Tribune
- ^ : European Roma Rights Center :
- ^ : European Roma Rights Center :
- ^ Roma Media Film Productions
- ^ http://www.unmikonline.org/dpi/pressrelease.nsf/0/892FE8EF4502EF61C12570F1002E4BF9/$FILE/pr1474.pdf
- ^ UNMIK starts moving Kosovo Roma
- ^ Dateline April, 2009
[edit] External links
- European Court of Human Rights
- United Nations Human Rights Committee
- Gypsy Blood: The Roma, Ashali and Egyptian IDPs of Mitrovica, Kosovo Internet at the Internet Movie Database
- Dateline, an Australian documentary which first aired April 26, 2009.
- KOSOVO MEDICAL EMERGENCY GROUP NGO highlighting this issue.
- UNMIK Moving Roma
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